Today's post is on...
Intergalactic Communications
Language
The galaxy is home to an uncountable number of sapient species, each of which has evolved its own forms of communication, be that audio-vocal, visual-bioluminescent, chemical-pheromone, or something even more exotic. As species spread across their homeworlds, local systems, and eventually the galaxy, they encountered more and more aliens who communicated differently from themselves. Of all forms of communication, spoken language is the most dominant, but using the same form of communication is not enough to overcome the language barrier. Throughout history some sapients have taken it upon themselves to learn multiple languages, but the millions of forms of communication documented in the galaxy proved to be unconquerable even by the most skilled multilinguists.
Most historical linguists agree that the trade languages were the first solution to the galactic communication problem to emerge. They began as mixed, simple collections of words and phrases intended to be learned as a second tongue by multiple species, with just enough versatility to easily facilitate an exchange of goods and services between two alien parties. As time passed and trading empires grew, some trade languages became so complex and widely known they would usurp the original tongues of the participating species entirely. Today, the most widely spoken language in the galaxy is Galactic Basic Standard, more commonly known as Basic, which is believed to have originated as one such trade language in the Core millennia ago, and has sense spread across the Galaxy. The corresponding written form of Basic is the 34 character system known as Aurebesh, which is equally dominant. In the Core, and most of the territory of the Empire, Basic has become the lingua franca, and is the sole language for many denizens, while in the Rim, Basic is more often a second or third language. Today, modern technology such as protocol droids and translator collars allow species physically incapable of speaking Basic the ability to participate in spoken language, leaving only the most geographically isolated or biologically exotic unable to easily communicate with others.
Technology
Developing alongside the universal trade languages was the technological ability to transmit audio, images, and other information across long distances. Today, communication of all types is packaged as data, encoded, and transmitted via a number of different methods in order to span the void of space.
In local settings – be it across a world, in close orbit, or between a planet and its moons – mundane light-speed communication systems, referred to as Sublight Communications are still the most popular. These systems were among the first developed by most species for long range communications, and regardless of species of origin rely on the same physical principles. They work by embedding data into carrier waves – long wavelengths for long distances, short wavelengths for short distances – which travel at or near lightspeed from the transmitter to receiver. These systems are cheap, easy to maintain, and easy to use.
The largest limitation to sublight communication systems is the speed of the carrier wave, which, as a form of electromagnetic/photonic energy, travels at the speed of light. Across a single world or within a small planetary system, the signal delay is inconsequential. Between two planets in the same star system, the delay is a minor inconvenience of minutes to hours. But to travel between even the closest stars, light-speed transmissions can take years, and across a galaxy, millennia. Until the widespread adoption of faster-than-light systems, communications between star-systems were primarily relegated to the realm of couriers, who would transport messages aboard their starships and deliver them to their destination via hyperspace.
Over the eons many FTL communication systems would be tested, the most promising of which looked to utilize hyperspace, though the exotic physics of the strange dimension proved to be a formidable barrier. According to general hyperspace theory, no particle can move slower than lightspeed in the hyperspace dimension. Hyperdrive technology allows a vessel to jump from realspace to hyperspace, where the vessel can remain as long as it sustains a velocity above lightspeed. A widely experienced phenomena observed while traveling in hyperspace is the “blue-field effect” – the appearance that the vessel is suspended in a field, bubble, or tunnel of swirling white and blue, but nothing can be seen beyond. This is a side effect of the hyperspace speed barrier – as nothing slower than light can exist, any light emitted in the hyperspace dimension will drop back out to realspace as soon as it is slowed by even the most minute gravitational wave, or interaction with matter. Only light within the small radius of an active hyperdrive can persist, casting a dim light out into the hyperspace dimension - but quickly falling away.
For this reason, sublight communications cannot be sent through hyperspace. However, faster-than-light particles called tachyons can. These exotic particle-waves are only found in hyperspace, and messages embedded in tachyon waves can be exchanged nearly instantly regardless of distance, but there is a catch: as tachyons can only exist in hyperspace, the sender and receiver of the tachyon signal must both be in the hyperspace dimension to communicate. The difficulty in harnessing this phenomena for communication, then, is getting your transmission from realspace into hyperspace, and back to realspace again. Records of tachyon communications between ships in hyperspace date back to before the Old Republic, but most of these communications were experimental or happenstance. The coordination alone required to jump two ships from different star systems into hyperspace at the same time without prior coordination is a near impossible task, and was not an efficient way for the galaxy at large to communicate.
A solution to the FTL communication problem finally emerged in the form of a technological breakthrough, called Hyperwave Communication. Hyperwave communication utilizes the "hyperwave effect", which allows an EM signal generated in realspace to induce a matching signal in a nearby shielded relay in hyperspace, and back again. By combining these devices into a network of transmitter/receivers, called transceivers, that are suspended in both realspace and hyperspace, a signal can be sent between two locations in realspace, but still take advantage of tachyon speeds. A hyperwave transmission begins at a transceiver in realspace, which uses the hyperwave effect to send its EM signal in realspace to a nearby hyperwave transceiver in hyperspace. This transceiver then converts the transmission, and embeds it into a tachyon wave. The tachyon signal is then broadcast across hyperspace, until it reaches a transceiver with the correct destination address. This transceiver returns the signal to a realspace relay via hyperwave, either directly to the intended recipient, or re-broadcasted as an EM signal across realspace until it does. The biggest limitation to the hyperwave system is infrastructure - not only do the sender and receiver need access to a hyperwave transceiver, but at minimum two hyperwave transceivers must also be deployed in hyperspace near the sender and receivers position to carry the signal.
Most sublight and hyperwave comms are transmitted as “widebeam” – where the signal propagates out from the transmitter in all directions and can therefore be picked up by any receiver in range, regardless of direction. Using laser systems or other photon-focusing techniques for sublight transmissions, and tachyon focusing simu-tunnels for hyperwave transmissions, the signal can be sent as a “tightbeam”, a transmission sent in one specific direction. This not only requires highly specialized equipment, but exact knowledge of where your recipient will be by the time the signal arrives, a level of coordination only regularly achievable by governments and militaries. The payoff is discretion, as tightbeams are almost entirely impossible to detect or intercept by anyone but the intended recipient.
Hyperwave communications, even when sent from the farthest reaches of the galaxy, are to most sentient’s perception instantaneous. However, they are also extremely expensive, have low bandwidth, and require a large network of relays to operate. The suspending of hyperwave transceivers in hyperspace is a particularly dangerous and difficult task, and hyperspace suspended relays often need frequent redeployment, as they drift out of their intended region of hyperspace regularly. Typically, hyperwave relays are deployed by a vessel in hyperspace at as low a velocity as possible, and allowed to drift through a region of space for a few years before they are recaptured and returned to their original position - a skill intensive, laborious and expensive endeavor. Still, the power to transmit data nearly instantly over any distance has long been worth the cost to the rich and powerful, and small, isolated private hyperwave networks were the first to emerge. It would not be until the era of the Ruusan Reformations nearly a millennia ago that the Republic Senate would decide to begin a public initiative to bring hyperwave access to all citizens. This project, which would ultimately see billions of hyperwave transceivers and relays installed across the galaxy in both real and hyperspace, led to the creation of a galaxy wide communication system which tied local sublight communication systems together with a hyperwave network.
The HoloNet, as it would come be called, has developed into the premier communications network in the galaxy. More advanced that any private hyperwave network that came before it, the HoloNet is capable of full holographic information transfers – assuming, of course, you are not far from a network relay, or you have an uplink of your own. The primary use of the HoloNet is live information transfers; holo-calls, news feeds, and state broadcasts. Limited access to information databases are available to private citizens, but due to bandwidth issues, this functionality is usually reserved for State actors. Most starships are fitted with basic hyperwave transceivers, and larger relays service the uplinks of an entire star systems. The network is robust and well encrypted, and while there are occasional outages as hyperspace embedded relays drift out of alignment, the system more or less functions smoothly and users require little to no understanding of the complex telecommunications infrastructure to take advantage of its services.
Formerly maintained by the Galactic Republic, the Empire has taken over as stewards of the HoloNet system – though not without changes. Slowly but surely, information transfers on the HoloNet have become more controlled, particularly at the edges of the system in the Mid Rim and Expanse. Imperial communication lines are given priorities above all others, and the system has been largely adapted for the distribution of Imperial propaganda. The Empire has also prioritized the construction and maintenance of new, isolated Imperial military HoloNet networks over improvements to the public network, giving their forces express communication advantages when fighting on the home front at the expenses of its citizens ability to stay connected. Still, the HoloNet serves as the primary gateway to communication and information transfers for all Imperial citizens.
Outside the Empire, it is common for smaller factions to have their own, much more mundane hyperwave networks, which are capable of standard FTL communications and database interactions within their own systems. These networks are typically capable of interfacing with other outside networks such as the HoloNet, but only on the most basic level, easily delivering unencrypted calls and written messages, but struggling with encoded communications or database interactions. When operating on a starship beyond any network, it can still be possible to tap into the HoloNet by bringing your own hyperwave relay transceiver with you, and deploying it in hyperspace when FTL comms are required. While effective, this method is extremely costly, and has only been officially utilized by very well-funded exploration efforts and military fleets deep behind enemy lines, though many intelligence analysts hypothesize this method is also viable for modern state-sponsored surveillance and reconnaissance operations.
